Miscellania: Sunset, Food, And Moonflower.

We had another lovely sunset the other night which I thought I'd share with you.

I love the clouds.

A sea gull was kind enough to do a fly-by for me. Lunch yesterday was a grilled porterhouse steak.

The Hawthornes don't eat a lot of red meat, but every now and then, my body calls out for it. And I always have some steaks waiting in the freezer for my cravings.

We got these on sale at Food Lion. Originally $9.79/pound, these were reduced to $4.98/pound. Mr. Hawthorne grilled them perfectly. I was in charge of the baked potatoes. I stuffed some butter in the taters, then added chopped chives and scallions and a chive blossom. I thought the blossom was a nice touch. And yes, it's edible.

One of my favorite blooms in the garden is my moonflower. It starts opening up in late afternoon and you can actually watch it open. I have a vine growing in a pot on the deck and also a few vines climbing up the railing next to the steps. The flowers emit a delicious aroma. I've been trying to get a time lapse movie of these beauties opening up and it's not easy to do. The first night, I focused on the bud in the pot on the deck, which never opened, and caused me to miss 5 blooms opening on the vines coming up the steps. Last night, I forewent the pot on the deck and went downstairs where one flower had already bloomed and two were imminent. I set my tripod and camera up, focusing on one bud, and waited. And waited. Of course, I had to run in to go to the bathroom which took less than 1 minute and when I got back, I'd missed the unfurling. Not a problem. I readjusted my set up on the next bud and turned on the video time lapse. The camera shoots the first few frames, then cuts off for thirty seconds. Thirty seconds is the smallest time frame I can get on my little Nikon Cool Pix. And thirty seconds was all that little bud needed to open up. So here's what I got:

There's always tonight. And tomorrow night. And the night after that.